While Toronto council mulls a Scarborough subway, the TTC is scrambling to fix signals and tracks designed in the 1950s.

TTC CEO Andy Byford and Chair Karen Stintz appear at Yonge-Bloor station in February. The TTC is in the midst of a $500-million replacement of its six-decades-old signal system, which was responsible for a massive subway delay on July 2.

Wednesday morning’s horrendous subway delay, caused by a failure in the 60-year-old signal system, was only the beginning. The scramble to fund and fix Toronto’s aging subway will mean closures, delays and other headaches come fall.

Thousands of commuters were held up Wednesday morning when the signal system, installed in 1954, failed during morning rush hour, prompting an apology from transit boss Andy Byford and assurances that the TTC is fixing what it can.

“The system we have, given its age, is not reliable and is prone to failure,” said TTC spokesperson Brad Ross. “It should have been replaced a number of years ago.”

It didn’t make the priority list, despite discussions, for years, he said. But a $500-million computerized signal system on the Yonge-University-Spadina line is now set for completion in 2018.

The system on the Bloor-Danforth line has been in use since 1966 but there’s no money to replace it so far, said Ross.

“It is coming to the end of its useful life as well,” he said.

Council is again mulling a Scarborough subway, with Mayor Rob Ford tasking city manager Joe Pennachetti to find ways to pay for underground trains rather than the planned LRT at the end of the Bloor-Danforth line.

The current signal system relies on a circuit running on one of the tracks to alert trains behind to stop before getting too close.

It also has “train stop” that, should a train fail to obey a red signal, will force an emergency stop. It was an error in these devices, since replaced, that caused the 1995 subway crash between Dupont and St. Clair West that killed three people and injured 140.

On Wednesday morning, the track got wet during routine work and grounded out the circuit. That meant a red signal and crews down on the track, coaxing trains slowly into Bloor station to make sure they maintained a safe distance.

Under the new system, automated trains — which still include an operator — will be able to safely run closer together, hiking capacity on the overloaded line.

The TTC also needs to replace the track bed — also six decades old — in outdoor areas of the subway system, such as between Davisville and St. Clair.

TTC chair Karen Stintz said the 1995 crash led to nearly two decades of focus on the existing subway system.

“We stalled in our expansion; we focused solely on the capital repair of the existing system,” she said. “But then, strategically, we knew we needed to figure out how we could meet the needs of a growing city.”

Repairs and upgrades of the current system need to happen along with expansion, she said.

City council voted to replace Scarborough’s aging RT with light rail transit last November and signed a master agreement with the provincial agency Metrolinx to do just that. But it has since waffled, asking for a subway instead.

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